1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gun reloading equipment and, more particularly, to a device to facilitate the loading of muzzle-loading firearms with charges of powder and/or bullets or balls with ease, accuracy and dispatch.
2. Description of the Background
In pioneer times, the principal accouterments for the loading of muzzle-loading firearms were a powder horn, a bullet pouch and a ramrod. These relatively crude implements have not entirely been relegated to history because there remain certain gun buffs that still make use of them. However, there are others that, despite a preference for older muzzle-loading firearms, now rely on an array of more sophisticated equipment for the reloading of firearms of that type.
There have been a number of past efforts, beginning in 19th century, to develop more convenient devices for the loading of muzzle-loading firearms. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 163,404 to O. D. Phillips, granted in 1875, comprises a multi-bore rotatable cylinder rotatable upon a base having a socket to receive the muzzle of a gun or rifle and an offset plunger to discharge the powder from the bores into the muzzle of the firearm. The patent to C. W. Hovis, U.S. Pat. No. 184,079 issued in 1876, is similar except that no plunger is included.
Beginning in 1980, there has been a resurgence in the development efforts associated with devices to assist with the loading of muzzle-loading firearms. This resurgence is evident from the following series of patents:                U.S. Pat. No. 4,229,897 issued to Snowden in 1980,        U.S. Pat. No. 4,442,620 issued to Drake et al. in 1984,        U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,517 issued to Mansfield in 1985,        U S. Pat. No. 4,571,873 issued to Houk in 1986,        U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,125 issued to Curtis in 1986, and        U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,623 issued to Delap et al. in 1989.        
Finally, the present inventors, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,081,781, disclosed a gun loading device having a base with a socket to receive the muzzle of a gun. The base also supports a storage cylinder with a plurality of bores in a circular pattern which receive charges. The cylinder rotates about the base member, and a plunger is pushed perpendicularly, sequentially, through the charges of powder in the bores. All of the elements are readily disassembled for cleaning.